Beantown Bounce gets crowd moving

Erin Washington

Breakdancing started back in the 1970s on the streets as a generally unorganized pastime. Now it is performed and judged in full-fledged competitions, like T.R.U.E. Magazine’s second annual Beantown Bounce Dance Competition.The event drew approximately 2,000 young hip-hop dancers, breakers and fans from across New England to the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center in Roxbury last Saturday.

Despite starting almost two hours late, the event was full of energy from the crowd, dancers and hosts. The first exciting star to come out was Lil’ Fizz of the group B2K. He sang and rapped a bit, got all the girls out of their seats and then took his place at the judges’ table alongside twin hip-hop dance instructors Billy and Bobby McClain; Shanelle, who was a runner-up on the UPN reality show “R U the Girl,” which sought to find a singing talent to fill the shoes of the late TLC star Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez and head judge Shaumba Dibinga of OrigiNation.

The day’s host, O’So Krispie, winner of “R U the Girl,” played double duty as announcer and crowd-pleaser, and she definitely got a workout jumping from one side of the center to the other as she riled the crowd.

Seven groups participated in the junior division, which competed first. The costumes, which counted toward their scores, were creative and eye-catching, with the most noteworthy ensembles belonging to the Seekers of Knowledge from the Urban Dreams after-school program in Dorchester. These girls, ages 6-12, were dressed in white and gold, complete with paint covering their faces which, along with their precise and entertaining dance, earned them the first place prize. In second place was the group Skittles, which featured each child dressed in a different color top with matching shorts, suspenders and striped tights. The youngsters from the Rockin Robins House of Dance in Concord, N.H., comprised of four teen girls in matching decorated jean jackets, rounded out the top three with a fresh dance that received great acclaim from the audience.

Twice as many teams competed in the senior division. Status Quo represented Mattapan’s Stajez Dance Studio. This group of shirt-and-tie clad young men played prep-school students tearing their classroom apart in a hip-hop dance party. They brought down the house and claimed the first place prize of $1,000 over other notable teams including Cambridge’s EnMotion, the Lynn-based Troupe In the Mak’n (ITM) and Urban X.

The ongoing theme of the struggle between peace and violence hovered over the choreographed action. Before the competition started, EnMotion came out as a part of the group Peace Boston and asked all those in the audience who had lost someone to violence in Boston to stand and hold up a peace sign. They hoped that this event would be a call for peace and represent the good things a community can do together.

But this message was soon blurred.

Several of the dances, including those by ITM and Boston’s Ground FX, included pantomimed gun violence. Even the young girls in Seekers of Knowledge had a few violent moments.

There were even a few emergencies. One member of the group Koncrete fainted in the aisles after their performance. And according to BPDNews.com, there was a commotion outside the center as the audience filled the sidewalks after the event, caused by the sight of a teen displaying a gun in a car double parked outside the center. Police on the scene secured the car and arrested the three occupants, all of whom hailed from Dorchester and all of whom were charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition.

While these blemishes could lead some to claim that the competition was an example of how community events can go awry, the afternoon was not a total loss. The second annual Beantown Bounce competition featured exciting and brilliant dancing, a host and guest judges to please the star-struck members of the audience and a very supportive environment for the dancers and entertainers that made the afternoon well worth the experience for all.